Ideological split is on display while lawmakers battle over Judge Kavanaugh
By Jess Bravin and Brent Kendall | The Wall Street Journal
An eight-member Supreme Court returned from its summer break Monday with a case pitting an endangered species against a logging company, immediately demonstrating the pivotal role that Judge Brett Kavanaugh would play if confirmed.
Liberal justices said Congress had intended broad efforts to save endangered species. Conservatives said government shouldn’t impose costs on private landowners. With the court divided, a tiebreaking vote—probably for the property owner, should Judge Kavanaugh cast it—could be necessary to decide the case and others like it.
Nevertheless, the marble chamber’s atmosphere seemed in many ways a world apart from the caustic partisan battle over the court unfolding in the Senate buildings across the street. When Justice Stephen Breyer matter-of-factly said “drain the swamp,” he was referring to actual Louisiana wetlands, seemingly unaware that the phrase plays double duty in President Trump’s rhetorical arsenal.
